INEC releases list of expanded polling units next week
*Donates fire fighting vehicle to Federal Fire Service
Tunde Opalana, Abuja
Towards expanding accessibility of voters to polling units ahead of the 2023 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will next week roll out a comprehensive list of polling units in the country.
This is as the Commission will also commence online registration next week.
Recall that the Commission had in recent times moved round the country sensitizing stakeholders on the need for expansion of polling units.
The chairman of the Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu who disclosed this on Monday at the deployment of a new fire fighting vehicle to the Federal Fire Service at the INEC headquarters in Abuja reiterated the concern of the Commission on attacks on its facilities across the country.
Prof. Yakubu said “we earlier assured Nigerians that we shall conclude work on the expansion of voter access to polling units and make the new polling units available to citizens ahead of the CVR exercise.
I am glad to report that we have accomplished this task for the first time in 25 years.
“A comprehensive list of the new polling units will be published next week. Similarly, details of the locations of the registration centres and the procedure for the commencement of online registration will also be made available after a series of regular consultative meetings with stakeholders next week”.
Formally handing over of a new fire engine deployed to the Commission by the Federal Fire Service, the chairman said as a member of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), the Federal Fire Service has been as concerned as other security agencies about the recent attacks on INEC offices across the country.
“This is particularly so because out of the 42 attacks on our facilities nationwide, 18 incidents resulted from arson and three more by a combination of arson and vandalization.
“It will be recalled that concerned by these incidents, the Commission convened an emergency meeting of ICCES last week at which the security agencies renewed their determination to collaborate more with the Commission to address this challenge beyond the routine protection of INEC assets and the security of its officials, voters, observers, the media, candidates and their agents during elections.
“For its part, the Federal Fire Service offered to deploy additional state-of-the-art fire engines to the INEC headquarters to complement the two existing trucks. At the same time, it directed its State offices to take additional protective measures around other INEC facilities nationwide.
“Today’s inauguration of the new fire engine is another affirmation of the support to the Commission from the Federal Fire Service whose personnel, already deployed permanently to the Commission, will continue to operate and maintain the fire engines and other fire fighting equipment installed by INEC”, said Yakubu.
On behalf of the Commission, the chairman expressed appreciation to the Federal Fire Service and all other security agencies for the renewed assurances of support.
